Class L softball: Berlin comes from behind to beat Torrington

TORRINGTON >> No. 10 Berlin earned its second straight trip to the Class L softball semifinals with a come-from-behind 4-2 win over No. 2 Torrington Friday afternoon at Torrington High School.
Torrington’s Sara Heath and Brittany Young drove in runs for the Raiders in the second inning.

Berlin’s Amanda Patterson topped them with a three-run double two innings later.

Winning pitcher Makayla Harris put the game on ice in the top of the seventh, driving in the final Redcoat run.

“I want to give our (CCC) conference an incredible vote of thanks,” said Berlin coach Jason Pires. “They prepared us. We have four teams who were in and out of the top 10. We face good teams every day.”

The Redcoats, 18-5, flirted with the state’s top 10 themselves before running into three straight losses in one mid-season stretch.

“We had a bad week, but we regrouped and came back strong,” said Pires.

Practice in regrouping against tough opponents paid off Friday.

Harris (2-for-4), who heads for Division III Molloy College (Rockville Centre, New York) this fall, led off with a single against her counterpart, Sydney Matzko (7 innings, 3 earned runs, 6 hits, 13 strikeouts, 1 walk, 1 hit batter), heading for Division I North Carolina.

Torrington left fielder Alexa Potter made a great grab on a soft liner, doubling Harris off first.